icago. She wanted to understand the cultural patterns of the contradicting ways of the neighborhood. Horowitz focused on "teenagers as they interacted and developed identities in various social settings and how they transitioned from being teenagers to older community members." (Horowitz, p. 45) Horowitz spent a great deal of time with the teenagers from the 32nd street neighborhood. She observed them from the streets, in school, at parties, sometimes at home, and in political meetings. She focused her attention on the gang members in the community not becoming one of them, but becoming more like a reporter. Horowitz looked at different options like the males and females that were in the neighborhood. If you were male you could fight and get caught up in the streets or avoid the streets and concentrate on education or a job. For females they had the option of being a mother and sexual or start working towards a career. Many chose the streets of Chicago. Horowitz started out as being objective and neutral, but became more subjective the further she went into her studies. "She found that residents increasingly defined her in terms of local community expectations, creating problems for her as a "neutral" sociologist." (Horowitz, p. 46) Horowitz became a resident making their food going to their social gatherings and then hanging around with the neighborhood gang. Horowitz found out that being a female she was not aloud to be alone with a single gang member as she usually did. Also, she was not allowed to ask "stupid" questions as she was seen as an outsider. While observing them and conducting semi-structured interviews with many of the gang members and residents of the neighborhood she earned their trust and began to learn what they were all about. Horowitz learned which gangs wore what colors and how each of the gangs ran their operations. The gang she hung out with was named the "Lions." At first people thought she w...
